Next goal: to win the fourth final… After the final score of 84-72 in favor of Olympiakos tonight at the S.E.F, Panathinaikos seeks victory at the OAKA on May 30rd in order to lead the OPAP BasketLeague series of finals to a fifth game.
The game did not start well for Panathinaikos. A swift 7-0 run against it put the home team in the driver’s seat with the “clover” trying to find solutions but coming up short. The picture of the game was not painted green and this was something that was also verified down the road with the score difference gradually growing bigger. Itreachedan 11-pointlead(17-6, 4’50’’), then 13 (24-11, 8’06’’), and got up to even (53-33, 19’05’’). Numbers speak volumes about what was happening on the court in the first half. The home team had 13 more attempts in shots in the paint (39-26), grabbed more rebounds (19-14), committed less turnovers (3-12), and recorded more steals (6-0). In addition, they succeeded in 9/13 free throws versus ¾ that Panathinaikos had. On top of that, there was one more number that cost dearly to Panathinaikos: the three fouls that Kostas Kaimakoglou had been assessed with by the time the game had reached the first minute into the second quarter.
The “Greens” tried to change something upon returning on the court after the halftime break, and seemed to be succeeding. Their defense got stronger, Kaimakoglou returned on the court too despite his three fouls, the gap was decreased and was crunched down to 8 points (55-47 at 26’, 57-49 at 26’55’’). Three ‘big threes’ by Papanikolaou, Law, and Printezis gave another breather to the home team (66-49, 28’30’’) that managed to break ahead in the scoreagain by having 9/18 three-point shots up until that point of the game. Panathinaikos had made a 14-2 run in the first five minutes of the third quarter and received a 10-0 run within 1’10’’ (67-49), thus seeing the picture of the game doing an about-face again. The score margin reached 22 points (73-51) in the first minute of the fourth quarter and a little later was boosted to 23 (78-55, 35’). The “Greens” reacted, with the game tempo having changed, nibbled the lead down to 12 points (81-69, 38’20’’) with a three-pointer by Kostas Tsartsaris and offensive initiatives by David Logan, before came time for curtains down with a final score of 84-72. Nextstop…theOAKAonWednesday (30/5) at 7 p.m. for the fourth final aiming to get the series to 2-2.
Referees: Christodoulou, Karakatsounis, Koromilas
By quarter: 29-18, 53-35, 69-51, 84-72
Olympiakos (Ivkovic): Hines 6, Law 9, Antic 7, Spanoulis 15, Dorsey 2, Keselj 10, Gecevicius 6, Printezis 16, Papanikolaou 6, Mantzaris 5, Sloukas 2
Panathinaikos (Obradovic): Maric 3, Perperoglou 9, Batiste 12, Logan 9, Sato, Tsartsaris 7, Diamantidis 12, Vougioukas 3, Calathes 2, Smith, Kaimakoglou 9, Jasikevicius 6
